around mother’s regurgitations
that he sucks from her open craw
and I with a napkin blotting
corn chowder from my lips
the baby hummer and I
watch each other
sibling gone a nest unraveling
his head twitches back and forth
to eye passing butterflies and skittering
leaves but mostly for mom’s return
with frantic wing-beats
he hovers in place like
a drunken helicopter
as if to show me he knows
fate’s schedule is nonnegotiable
as the shadows slink closer
and one more night
swallows us both